







mfly 

Drammer 



a Short History of 
the Commercial 
Travelling 
Salesman’s Life 




Wilbur Elijah 
6astelow 



(One of the Profession.) 


Published by 
THE atJTHOR 

1903 










fr 3 


the library of 

CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAR 16 1903 

Copyright Entry 

V^tJLr. l4— C & 

CLASS Cty XXc. No. 

r 1- ^ 1 

COPY B. 

















*7 

O 


o 

o 

- 

"f: 

£ v. 

£ 


Contents. 


Chapter. Page 



Poetry, Oney a Drummer, 

5 

I. 

What is a Drummer? 

8 

II. 

The Habits of a Drummer, 

12 

III. 

Enjoyments of a Drummer, . 

18 

IV. 

How a Drummer is Paid, . 

23 

V. 

Sorrows of a Drummer, 

27 

VI. 

Funny Sights a Drummer Sees, 

31 

VII. 

A Drummer’s Devietry, 

36 

VIII. 

A Drummer’s Goodness, 

42 

IX. 

Is a Drummer. Reaeey to Beame? 

46 

X. 

A Workingman and a Drummer, 

50 

XI. 

A Drummer’s Best Friend When 



Traveeeing, 

54 

XII. 

Oney a Drummer, . 

58 



Copyrighted by 
Wilbur Elijah Castelow 
1903 


0n!y a Drummer. 


Far away from home one Sunday, 

A drummer spent the day. 

Seated :n a hotel parlor, 

Passing time away, 

Among a set of jolly fellows, 

Brimful of fun, 

They were telling stories, 

Which is characteristic with some. 

This drummer was thinking of home, 

Of a sweet child and mother left alone. 

When he started on this trip, 

He left his darling child home sick. 

She said, “ Please, papa, do not go. 

I want you home, ma and I love you so. 

We do not see very much of you, 

You simply come home, say, ‘How do you do?’ 
Then you start away again. 

Tell me, papa, are you always going to be the 
same?” 

“ I have got to go, my darling child. 

I’ll be back again in a short while.” 

He kissed his loved ones good bye, 

Wiped a tear drop from his eye, 

Then started on his trip, blythe and spry, 
Teaving his darlings home to cry, 

Tittle thinking what he should read by and by. 


5 


One of the drummers spoke up and said: 
“Come, old fellow, brace up. Why so sad? 
Tell us all what you are thinking of, my lad. 
Can’t you a story to us reveal? 

Go ahead now; let her spiel.” 

“ I have a story, boys, I can tell, 

Although I am not feeling very well. 

I am thinking of my home, sweet home. 
Something tells me I ought to go 
To my loved ones, for how do I know 
But that they need me. But, no; 

I never from a trip turned back, 

I have rode many miles on the track, 

I will a jolly story tell. 

Listen! ” How very still! 

The drummer was telling a comical yarn, 

The boys were laughing as he went along. 
Hello! What is this? 

The hotel clerk stands in their midst, 

A messenger boy follows just behind, 

Trying a certain drummer to find. 

Looking among the jolly crowd, 

The messenger calls his name aloud. 

The boy hands his message over, 

The drummer tore it open from its cover. 

When he had read he turned very pale and said 
“ My God, boys, my darling child is dead! ” 
Each man extended to him a helping hand. 
Sympathy never runs deeper with any 
Than a commercial travelling man. 

6 


They escorted him to the train, 

And see him start 

For home, full of sorrow and pain, 

With a broken heart. 

When they bid him good bye, 

He answered them back, with tear drops in his 
eyes, good bye. 

There were other drummers in the group think¬ 
ing of home, 

Where they had left loved ones all alone. 

Tears flowed from all their eyes, 

Which laughter had filled, when to their surprise. 
That fatal message arrived. 

On these brave hearts have been cast many a slur, 
He that some call, “Only a Drummer.” 



7 


CHAPTER I. 


What is a Drummer? 

T HERE is no doubt but that the majority of 
people know what a drummer is. For 
fear they do not, we will describe them 
as people made of flesh and blood, be they 
lady or gentleman. No doubt some of you will 
be surprised to learn that there are quite a 
number of lady, as well as gentlemen drummers 
on the road. 

Some of the ladies represent very peculiar 
lines of goods, as do also the men. Travelling' 
men have made the remark several times that if 
the women were to be trusted, there would be 
no more use for us fellows. 

It must be that the female drummers are 
not to be trusted on the road, any more than the 
male drummers. In the first place, a drummer 
sacrifices everything that is dear to him at home, 
and undergoes numerous privations, simply to 
become a travelling salesman. He starts away 
from his home; perhaps his happy little family 
is gathered about him just before he leaves, each 
kissing him good bye. He starts out on a trip, 
determined to do a good business for the house 
he represents. His dear ones whom he leaves 
behind are always sorry when he goes, because 
they can never tell whether they will ever see 
him again or not, until he returns. When he 
does return, there is happiness in his family 
once more. 


8 


The proper way to calculate the benefit of a 
drummer is to take, for instance, a large manu¬ 
facturing city or town, look it over, see what an 
extensive business each manufacturer is doing 
in that city, see how many families and homes 
are being supported by these establishments, see 
how many merchants of that same city are re¬ 
ceiving trade from the families whose husbands 
and fathers are working in these factories, and 
then count and see how many freight cars it 
takes to transport the goods out of the freight 
depot that are hauled there from these manufac¬ 
tories to be shipped to different parts of the 
country. 

There must be some one who is placing all 
these goods somewhere that these people are 
making and shipping away from their factories 
to receive the good, hard, cold cash for. When 
you have traced it out you will find it is none 
other than the drummer who is responsible for 
all this activity of business in the different cities 
throughout our glorious country, for it is he 
who has made friends with the merchants and 
manufacturers who give him orders to fill. In¬ 
stances are known where drummers have left 
one house to go to work for another, and have 
been responsible for ruining the firm they left, 
as far as business is concerned, and building up 
the other, which shows how strong a friendship 
exists between the drummer and the man he 
meets, who is always ready to p'ace with him an 
order, out of friendship’s sake, if nothing more. 

It is known that if the people who stand at 
the head of some of these different concerns 
were to start out and go over their travelling 
salesman’s route, they could not get orders 

9 


enough to pay for their daily bread. The first 
question the customer would ask them would 
be: “Where is Mr. -■? I thought he repre¬ 

sented this house.” 

On being informed that he did, but they 
were one of the firm, just going over his route 
for a change, they would very quickly tell him 
they did not wish anything in his line to-day; 
they would wait until their old friend came 
around again. 

Such is the case to-day with most of the 
travelling salesmen. They find that they are 
the favored ones with some buyers. When the 
merchants and manufacturers get once ac¬ 
quainted with a good, straight, honest drummer, 
representing a reliable house, and they know 
that what he says about his goods is true, he 
will find that he has a friend for a customer for¬ 
ever. It will be well for those who do not 
alread)^ realize the fact to know that the prosper¬ 
ity of the United States rests entirely upon the 
drummer, so far as business is concerned, and 
we are very well aware that when there is no 
business most everything else is at a standstill. 

In summing everything up, you can very 
readily see what a very important man or woman 
a drummer is to have around, for upon him or 
her rests the entire wheels of success. It all 
depends upon his or her sales how the working¬ 
men or workingwomen of our country live. If 
they have plenty of work, they give their fam¬ 
ilies plenty to eat, also plenty of clothes to wear, 
with a nicely furnished home and all the com¬ 
forts of life in it, besides saving up a nice little * 
bank account to be used on a rainy day, if need be. 
On the other hand, if there were no drummers, 

io 


and the manufacturers should depend on mail 
orders to keep their factories running, you 
can rest assured you would see a vast difference 
in the working people’s homes, as well as the 
manufacturers. Then, always remember, when 
you see a drummer out looking for business that 
there are a great many people depending upon 
that one man alone for their living. Remember 
the success of our whole country rests entirely 
upon “only a drummer.” But there are cer¬ 
tainly all kinds of drummers, just the same as 
there are in any other profession. We hope you 
ma}' - form a different opinion of the profession 
from what a great many people have formed, for 
you no doubt have heard the remark passed 
many a time : ‘ ‘ Oh ! he is nobody but a drum¬ 
mer, and you cannot trust them out of your 
sight.” If you will read the following chapters 
all through you may form altogether a different 
opinion of the common, so called drummer. 


ii 


CHAPTER II. 

The Habits of a Drummer. 

T HERE is a general impression that prevails 
among most people that a drummer’s 
habits are something of the very worst 
that can be found in any person. How 
often you have heard the remark made: ‘ ‘ He is 
a drummer; you cannot trust them, you know.” 

Without a doubt, there are persons who 
actually believe the actions of a drummer on the 
road are something terrible. They go so far as 
to think they have a wife or a sweetheart in 
every town they visit. There may be a few ex¬ 
ceptions, however, but what a ridiculous thought 
to entertain. Most every drummer on the road 
has had this question asked him: ‘ ‘ Suppose 
your wives and sweethearts should happen to 
meet, what would be the result?” 

This seems to be the general answer to it: 
“They never will have the chance to meet each 
other, so long as I travel on the road.” On 
account of a drummer being before the public so 
much in different places, most every little thing 
he does is taken notice of. If is said there are 
men in every city who have wives of their own, 
with some other fellow’s wives and sweethearts 
on the side. Drummers have had them pointed 
out to them by the dozens in almost every city 
they have been into. 

You must remember that a drummer gets 

12 


used to being away from his home, but men 
who remain in their native city all of the time, 
and only go from home once in awhile, when 
they do get away what they do never goes back 
to their wives or sweethearts, or hardly ever is 
heard of afterward. If some of the drummers 
wanted to, they could tell quite a history in 
regard to some of the best men of their own 
cities, whom they have seen out on a lark, as 
they call it; but a drummer never gives any¬ 
thing of that kind away. It is very strange to 
some people how a drummer knows so much 
about his own city when he is away from it so 
much. This is the way he learns. At night 
time, after supper, or on Sunday afternoon, 
when the boys are sitting around swapping 
stories, they will get to talking of different 
places they have just been, or are going to. All 
one has to do is to ask if you were ever in such 
or such a city, and some of them are sure to 
answer, “ Yes.” Then it may be your own city 
you are asking about, and if none of the boys 
find out you are from that place, by a little 
questioning they will tell you of things that 
happened in your city that you would never 
have known in your entire lifetime, if you had 
not heard it from a drummer. Most all drum¬ 
mers have been put wise in their home city by 
their brother drummers. To prove some things 
I have heard of the people of my home city, I 
have done as my brother drummers told me to 
do, ‘‘Just watch out, if you ever go to that city,” 
and I have. There is no doubt but that a good 
many people honestly believe that a drummer 
spends the most of his time on the road with 
women, and blows in a large portion of his 
T 3 


salary on the same, which is a very wrong im¬ 
pression for any person to obtain, because, if a 
drummer is attending to his business, he is alto¬ 
gether too busy to occupy his mind with even a 
passing thought of the fair sex, unless they are 
•buying goods from him. 

One chance a drummer has that very few 
other persons ever have, is the opportunity of 
meeting with all classes of men and women. It 
does not take a drummer very many years 
before he gets to be a first class judge of human 
nature. He can tell by just one glance at a 
woman or man where to class them. Therefore, 
this alone affords the drummer a great study. 

While sitting in the hotel lobbies in different 
cities, we have seen ladies pass by the windows 
for the express purpose of seeing if they cannot' 
get a drummer to follow them. But the 
drummers can read them just like a newspaper, no 
matter how they may dress. The hardest per¬ 
son in the world to deceive is a drummer—that 
is one who has had a few years’ experience on the 
road. An old drummer can tell a new drummer 
at first sight. 

After a man becomes a drummer he has 
started into a profession that is one of the hard¬ 
est things to give up that was ever known. 
There is certainly a great fascination about it, 
something that cannot be explained, unless 
some old maid or crank might say, “because 
you meet so many pretty girls. ’ ’ This may be 
true, for there are no other kind to be found 
wherever one goes but the pretty ones, for they 
are all on to the idea of fixing up, so that they 
represent some one else besides themselves, until 
they get home to wash their face, take their hair 
14 


down, and remove the beauty pads from their 
clothes. It is a positive fact that when a drum¬ 
mer is at home, he wishes he was away again; 
then, when he is away, he wishes he was back 
home again. It makes no difference how com¬ 
fortable a home he may have, with a wife in it 
whom he adores, if he stays at home a few days, 
he becomes very nervous and irritable. Every 
train he hears or sees go through his city makes 
his desires very strong to be away again; then, 
when he has gone, he begins to get tired of the 
hotels and cars, and then comes that strong 
desire to be at home once more. 

You can just imagine how sick one becomes 
after a time of sleeping in a different bed most 
every night, also of eating all kinds of cooking at 
restaurants, hotels, and all sorts of eating places. 
You will find that the majority of drummers are 
perfectly happy when they can sit down to a 
meal of victuals without having a menu card 
shoved into their face to pick out what they 
want, because that menu card is an awful 
monotony in itself to them, when they are on 
the road any length of time. 

There are quite a number of fellows who get 
sick of the European plan, then they try the 
American plan ; some go so far as to try the best 
eating houses in the city. They can try any¬ 
thing they wish to, but will never receive any 
satisfaction until they can sit down at home, and 
whatever may be served them they are perfectly 
contented. So far as eating is concerned, time 
and time again, if you could sit at the table with 
a drummer, you would never see him pick up, or 
accept a menu card. The reason for this is, 
they are so used to seeing them that they can 

15 


read them all, for they know pretty near what is 
printed on them at the different hotels they 
stop at each day. It is very amusing to hear 
them rattle off a dinner, without even looking at 
a menu card. Very seldom the waiter tells 
them that such a thing is not on the card. Then, 
again, they tell a waiter or waitress to bring 
them anything that they want to get rid of in the 
way of eatables. You can imagine how a waiter 
will fill an order of this kind. Some will bring 
most everything on the menu card, while another 
will order the same as if they were ordering for 
themselves. There is a vast difference between 
waiters and waitresses. The so-called drum¬ 
mers are the ones who know it, for they are not 
very long in selecting their favorites at the 
different hotels, and always insist upon sitting 
at their table. 

It is said there is such a thing as drummers 
making dates with waitresses, which is all right, 
if they are not married men. If you could see 
some of the chronic kickers who sit down to the 
tables, you would say very quickly that you 
guess he was not looking for any dates with 
waitresses, but was trying to be a little bit 
cranky. When you see a drummer that way 
you can make up your mind he has been on a 
long trip and is longing for home, which makes 
him feel very irritable and cranky. 

One more thing to prove that a drummer’s 
habits are not the worst in the world is this : 
No matter what one might do when away from 
home, he has always one thing to think of, and 
that is the house he represents. Don’t think for 
a minute that they are not posted in regard to 
the general character of the drummer, and how 
16 


he conducts himself when representing them on 
the road, for many a drummer has been asked 
when he returned home from a trip about certain 
things that happened in cities where he had been 
that he was concerned in, and he never dreamed 
his house would find them out, but it did. It 
has been said that some drummers have been 
shadowed for their entire trip by people they 
would never suspect of doing it—perfect stran¬ 
gers to them. 

You can see, no matter how far away from 
home a- drummer may be, his house has got it 
down so fine that they come pretty near knowing 
every move he makes. As far as character 
goes, a married drummer will watch himself 
pretty close, and a single one will not run so 
wild as some of our friends paint drummers 
in their mind. 


17 


CHAPTER III. 

Enjoyments of a Drummer. 

T HE enjoyments of a drummer are some¬ 
thing like the Jew’s son, who was told if 
he would work well for him for a little 
while, he would take him down by the 
railroad track and let him see the trains go by. 

After a hard day’s work of trying to get 
orders, and after he finishes eating his dinner or 
supper, or whatever meal the hotel is serving, 
the first thing you will see a drummer do is to 
write a letter home to his house with his orders, 
then he may write to his wife or sweetheart, 
whichever the case may be. Now his business 
for the day is at an end, and he is ready for any 
delightful pleasures he can get. In most cases, 
you will see him lounging around the hotel 
lobby, waiting for anything that may happen; 
getting tired of this, he will amuse himself for 
awhile by taking a walk up and down the street, 
and looking into the different store windows. 
Sometimes he takes in the theatre, but as a gen¬ 
eral rule most drummers have seen all the best 
shows that are travelling, and the theatre gets to 
be old to them very quickly, and they do not 
care for that kind of amusement any more. 

If you should go into a hotel in the evening, 
you would see all the boys taking a look at you. 
No matter what they are doing, it is a force of 
habit with a drummer wherever he may be. 

18 


is always looking to see if among all the stran¬ 
gers he is with he can catch a glimpse of some 
old familiar face; if he can, there is joy in his 
heart. There was a time when a good share of 
the drummers used to hie themselves away to 
one of their rooms to play a quiet game of poker ; 
you cannot get but a very few of them to do it 
to-day; it is on account of the reputation they 
wish to carry with the house they represent. 

There are. quite a number of the drummers 
that belong to the different secret societies. By 
being members of these orders they make quite 
a good many friends, whom otherwise they 
would never have met. Upon meeting some of 
this class of people, a drummer sometimes re¬ 
ceives a royal good time, for by belonging to 
these lodges you receive an invitation to attend 
their meetings, i{ it should happen to be a meet¬ 
ing night when you are in their city, thereby 
giving you a very enjoyable evening. One thing 
that a drummer appreciates very much is the 
summer parks that have become so prominent in 
late years in all the principal cities. There is 
not a summer evening passes but that you see 
squads of drummers going to take a trolley car 
for the park, where they pass an evening very 
pleasantly. When Sunday comes, it is like a 
whole week to some drummers, especially those 
who have not made any dates for that day, or 
those who never attend church. In some of the 
cities there is a sign posted in the hotels, which 
reads: “All travelling men are invited to attend 
services at such and such a church. Call for 
seat number so and so,” whatever it might be. 
It would be a good idea for all churches to set 
off one or two seats for the use of drummers 


IQ 


only. There would be more drummers attend 
church than there are now, if such was the case. 
There was a report going around at one time 
that in a certain city one Sunday there were two 
drummers attended one of the large churches in 
the morning. They were ushered into a very 
nice seat up the middle aisle. They had not 
been there very long before in came a gentleman 
and lady, who sat in the same seat with them. 
The lady showed her ignorance right away by 
the look she bestowed upon her husband—we 
will suppose it was her husband, for that is 
what the drummers thought. She very plainly 
showed that she resented the idea that those men 
should have the impudence to occupy her pew. 
It is far better to have a seat in every church 
reserved for drummers, who might be in your 
city over Sunday, and wish to attend church. 
They could then do so without intruding upon 
anybody’s good nature. There are ten drummers 
who attend the Sunday Y. M. C. A. meeting to 
where there is one that attends church. The 
only reason for this is because there is a special 
invitation sent to drummers at every hotel in the 
large cities. When he comes down Sunday 
morning for his breakfast a letter is handed him 
by the hotel clerk; it contains a cordial invita¬ 
tion to attend the young men’s meeting at four 
o’clock Sunday afternoon. Also upon this same 
invitation sometimes is an invitation to attend 
church. You may think a drummer is not a 
very sanctimonious sort of fellow, but, for an 
example, if you could look into the little dress 
suit case, or grip, that he carries with him on his 
trips, nine times out of ten you would find stored 
away in one of the corners a Bible, given to him 


20 


by his dear, loving mother, father, sister, wife, or 
sweetheart. Coming from such a source, they 
cannot help but feel a little under obligation to 
look into it once in awhile to see what it says, 
for they are looking for a better place to go to 
than this earth when they die, as well as all 
other people, who do not have to follow such a 
tough life as the drummers. 

It has been said there are plenty of tough 
drummers travelling on the road, but where you 
find one of these to-day you will find hundreds 
of others, who know how to appear as perfect 
gentlemen in any kind of society. It is very 
seldom you hear of a drummer getting into 
trouble of any kind, and when you do it is ten 
chances to one it was no fault of his. There are 
sometimes false friends who are willing to draw 
anybody into trouble for the sake of clearing 
themselves. A good many of the drummers 
have gentlemen friends in most all the cities ; 
some have lady friends. What is the reason 
they cannot have such an acquaintance with¬ 
out everybody making slurring remarks about 
them, for a drummer knows how to treat either a 
lady or a gentleman as such if he is in their 
company. A drummer looks upon a lady as he 
would upon his own sister, but you must know 
there are all kinds of ladies, as well as men. 
The majority of people who think the drummers 
are after a certain set are greatly mistaken, for, 
if they were, they would have no trouble in get¬ 
ting them, for they are certainly chasing after 
the drummers for all they are worth. 

There are some of the best girls in the most 
prominent families who have chased after drum¬ 
mers in the different cities. There is not a 


21 


drummer travelling who cannot tell you some very 
interesting anecdotes that have happened in the 
different cities he has visited. He can put 
quite a number of people wise in their own 
city. 


22 


CHAPTER IV. 

How a Drummer is Paid. 

T HERE are all kinds of ways that some of 
the drummers get their pay. Remember 
a drummer is a man without a home; he 
is in one city to-day, and in another one 
to-morrow: He continues going until his final 
wind up comes. He is running all kinds of 
risks on his life every day. He is liable to start 
out in the morning happy and healthy, but 
before the day has passed away he may be one 
of the dead ones in a railroad wreck, or he may 
be one of the missing ones in a hotel fire. With 
all this facing him, he keeps on the same old 
way day in and day out. The majority of 
drummers who are representing a responsible 
house generally get a permanent salary, or a 
salary and commission combined, with their ex¬ 
penses paid by the house they represent. 

As a rule, a good drummer will get his sal¬ 
ary increased from time to time, but this depends 
a great deal on the class of goods he is handling, 
and also upon his ability to bring in trade for the 
same. If a good house does raise a drummer’s 
pay once in awhile, they will make no mistake, 
for he will put forth his best energy to more than 
pay his increase in salary. When a drummer 
makes up his mind to do a thing, it is like trying 
to make the sun stop shining to attempt to stop 
him, for he will certainly accomplish what he 

23 


makes up his mind to do, or will know the 
reason why. His first lesson is never to take 
“No” for an answer, when “Yes” sounds a 
great deal better to him, for in “Yes” there is 
money for him, while in the little word “No” 
there is nothing. There are good men to-day, 
who are representing responsible houses, and 
cannot get the least raise in their salaries, no 
matter how hard they work and try to deserve it. 

Firms of this kind do all they can to make 
their drummers believe they are not of as much 
account to them as they might think they were, 
for they really fear if they should let them know 
how much they really did rely on them for their 
business, they would get to be a little too big 
feeling for their comfort. A drummer ought to 
know very quickly how many goods his house is 
shipping. He can very readily tell whether he 
is the cause of this business or not. Any re¬ 
sponsible house that thinks for one minute their 
drummers do not know are greatly mistaken, 
because they can read the output like a book. 
There was a time when good, responsible houses 
used to compel their drummers to pay their own 
expenses on the road. Just look at what a cinch 
that was for the manufacturer. He was simply 
doing business on some other man’s money, or 
his drummer was spending his good money to 
get business for the house he represented. But 
that part of the business to-day has become a 
thing of the past. Yet some drummers insist 
on travelling this way still, and it has proven to 
be a mutual thing between manufacturer and 
drummer with a very good profit to both. There 
was a time in the history of business when some 
drummers actually had to do the bulk of his 
24 


business by standing up to a bar in a saloon 
and treating his customers, in order to get any 
trade. The best spenders were the men who 
did the most business every time. That way of 
doing business has gone by. What people are 
looking for in these days from a drummer are 
the best goods for the lowest price. They are 
not looking for wine suppers, for they know they 
are simply a mockery, and they actually feel a 
little under obligation to the drummer who used 
to pay for them. Of course, he would figure to 
make his customers pay for all of the treating, 
with a little bit of a profit besides. 

It is a good thing this mode of doing busi¬ 
ness is passing away, because it has been the 
starting point of many a good drummer, as well 
as a buyer of his goods, on the downward path, 
from which they were never able to return. 
Many a drummer has friends of this kind lying 
beneath the turf for simply being a good fellow 
to every one and treating their buyers too often. 
It really threw them into a very fast way of 
living; thus comes their untimely end. All the 
leading drummers of our entire country will tell 
you in one voice that the wine suppers are not 
what they are cracked up to be, especially where 
there are women in attendance. They will all 
tell you it is one of the worst curses a drummer 
had to contend with. 

It is a good thing that it is getting to be 
passe , for it will certainly save an immense 
number of drummers’ lives. It will do away 
with a very heavy expense, which their house 
has had to pay in order to carry on this plan of 
getting business. It has got now where you 
can take a customer with you to any ordinary 

25 


hotel for a meal. They are just as well satisfied 
with it as they would be if you were to get up. a 
special supper for them, and it certainly puts the 
standing of the drummer’s house way up in the 
estimation of the trade. Before it could not help 
from lowering the trade’s estimation to think 
that a drummer of a first-class house must come 
into their city and, in order to do business with 
any of them, he must first invite them to a first- 
class wine supper; but, as the drummers say, 
“It is all over now ” They are certainly the 
ones who are doing their share to make the 
people wise, no matter what salary they get, as 
long as they are perfectly satisfied. 


26 


CHAPTER V. 

Sorrows off a Drummer. 

S OME drummers will tell you that the sad¬ 
dest days they see on the road are when 
they strike a city where they meet one or 
two of their strongest competitors. This 
may be very true of some, but not with all. 
There are any quantity of drummers travelling 
to-day, also some who have retired, who have 
done things on the road that they will never get 
over, being sorry as long as they live—some¬ 
thing to regret forever. Can you picture a 
drummer bidding his family good bye to start on 
a trip, perhaps leaving in his dearest home on 
earth a little child sick in bed, who, upon kissing 
its father good bye, begs of him not to be gone 
long this time, because baby is sick. 

The drummer has got to go, not knowing 
how soon he may be called back to that dear 
home with the sad news perhaps that his child 
cannot live. If he does not receive such news 
he is anxiously looking for a letter from his dear 
wife at every hotel at which he stops, to hear 
how his child is. If the word comes it is worse 
instead of better, then he is very sorry he left 
his home at all. Many a good, jolly drummer 
has been thrown from a good time into sadness, 
when they least expected it. On an occasion of 
this kind he has no truer friends to rely on than 
his brother' drummers, who are ever ready to 
27 


lend a helping hand to any one who is deserving 
of it. A drummer may be called a hard-hearted 
man, but it is not so. He sees so much of 
suffering in different ways, he cannot help but 
get a little used to some things. Don’t think 
for a minute that they have no heart; they are 
the most generous class of people on the face of 
the earth, always willing to lend a helping hand 
where it is needed, either in a financial or any 
other way that lays within their means. A 
drummer cannot escape the sorrows of life any 
more than any other human being. They make 
many expressions of sorrow; for instance, you 
will hear them say, ‘ ‘ I am sorry I have got to be 
away from home for another month,” or, when 
Saturday night comes you will hear some of 
them say, * 4 1 am sorry I cannot go home to¬ 
night.” If all the sorrows of a drummer were 
printed, it would be surprising to read them. 
The greatest sorrow of all that a drummer has is 
when he cannot get an order. Then you will 
hear him say, “I am very sorry I cannot sell 
you anything to-day.” But there are times 
when he has to say it, every one of them. There 
is not one who has not had his turn down one 
time or another, and who has expressed his 
sorrow for it very emphatically, too. 

Did you ever see a drummer that had missed 
a train by being about two or three minutes too 
late in getting to the depot, knowing if he did 
not catch that particular train he would have to 
wait about four hours before he could get 
another out of that place ; if you have, then you 
have probably heard him express his sorrows for 
not catching that train. He will generally start 
at the head of that railroad, with the president, 
28 


and give them a blessing all the way down, even 
to the rails, ties, spikes, and perhaps the dirt the 
track lays on. He cannot help doing this, 
because he feels so sorry he did not catch that 
train. 

Another thing that makes a drummer ex¬ 
press sorrow is when he checks his trunks for 
the next city he is going to, and when he gets 
there on the first train he possibly can, and is 
already to do business, he looks around the bag¬ 
gage room for his trunks. They are not there; 
then he has to telegraph back, and he finds out 
the baggagemaster at the last station had over¬ 
looked them. Then you should hear him ex¬ 
press his sorrow for the baggage system of that 
railroad. You certainly would have to laugh at 
some of his sorrows and the way he expresses 
them. 

Another great sorrow the drummer has is 
when he gets into a train to start for another 
city, and when he takes out his mileage book to 
present to the conductor, he finds there is not 
enough in it to make the next stop. Then he 
tells the conductor he will just look through the 
cars to see if there is anyone on board of whom he 
can buy some mileage. If he does not see any¬ 
body he knows, it is then he expresses his sor¬ 
row once more, and wishes he was where he 
could make laws for reduced fares on the cars 
with mileage books. He would have all fares 
alike, mileage or no mileage. But it all passes 
off in a little time. Everything goes along all 
right once more, until he strikes a certain hotel, 
where the thermometer registers about forty, and 
it is cold enough to freeze the doors in the hotel 
together. When they show him a room that is 
29 


as cold as zero, which, by the way, will happen 
in the best of hotels sometimes, but a drummer 
will listen to no explanation whatever, he will 
commence to explain his sorrow to the clerk, so 
he will be very likely to understand all he says 
to him. After all is said and done, he will nine 
times out of ten go to the room he has been kick¬ 
ing about and use it. After he has expressed 
his sorrows over it, he will calm down again all 
right, until he can find something else to occupy 
his attention. It will not be long before he will 
find it, for a drummer is forever on the go, either 
on the cars or in a city. They have got to 
keep on hustling, and as they hustle around for 
what little or great business they get, they can¬ 
not help meeting with all kinds of sorrow. But 
the saddest of all is to hear from the dear ones at 
home, that they have been killed or are at the 
point of death from an accident, or by sickness, 
or some such cause. The sorrow a drummer 
meets with in each place he stops you can leave 
with him—he will patch it up somehow, if there 
is any possible chance of doing so. 


30 


CHAPTER VI. 

Funny Sights a Drummer Sees. 

I T is a common occurrence for a drummer to 
go into a hotel dining room and see a young 
lady and gentleman having supper togethei 
at the same table. It is very amusing to 
see a drummer come into the dining room, bow 
to these two; then you will see blushes galore. 
It will not be long before one of this pair will 
beckon for the drummer to come to their table, 
whereupon he goes to them at once. If the 
drummer knew the lady she would first intro¬ 
duce him to the gentleman with her. If you 
could hear what was said to him, it might sound 
something like this in a whisper: “Don’t for 
my sake say anything at home about this, will 
you, for if you did, no telling what might 
happen. ’ ’ The lady would say a few things like 
this, until she was convinced she had gained the 
confidence of the drummer, and that he would not 
say anything—and he would not, for a drummer is 
the closest mouthed person on earth in regard to 
such things. The drummer would have supper 
at their table, and then they would wander out 
of the dining room, perhaps to the lobby, and he 
would ask them if they were registered there. 
They might tell him yes, aud they might tell 
him no. After they had bid the drummer good 
bye his lips would be sealed forever; he would 
never even lisp whom he met or where he met 
3i 


them. You cannot fool the drummer in a hotel. 
He can tell sometimes very quickly whether a 
lady and gent are married or not, for they are 
great students of human nature in all its branches. 

Another queer sight is to see a lady come in 
and register, and go into the dining room alone. 
It will not be long before in will come a gentle¬ 
man. As he comes into the dining room he 
catches sight of this lady at the table. She bows 
to him, he goes over to her, shakes hands with 
her, and he seems so pleased to see her. She 
pulls a chair out from the table for him to have 
supper with her at her table. To see them go 
on talking, you would think they had not met 
before for years. It would probably be about 
thirty minutes at the longest since they had 
parted. They might fool the common people 
who see them, but you can’t fool the drummers, 
for they lead a hotel life, and are educated up to 
most all the tricks in it. Come to trace these 
two out you might find them both registered; 
they occupy separate rooms, which is a little 
more expensive, but what of that, so long as 
they have fooled everyone. 

Another slick way is for a man to go into a 
hotel and register as Mr. -and wife, what¬ 

ever his name might be. Then he will tell the 
clerk his wife was shopping, or something else, 
and to reserve a good room for him, and he 
would be in to supper with her. When the time 
for supper comes, he would come around all 
right with his wife. Ten chances to one when 
he registered that way he did not know whether 
he would find his wife or not. Some fellows are 
very cute. When they bring in their wives to a 
hotel, they send them into the hotel parlor until 
32 



he registers, then he has all meals sent to their 
room, which keeps all drummers’ eyes off of 
them. 

Another sight that is almost an every day 
occurrence is when a train stops at a station in a 
large city, you will see a very pretty young lady 
get into the last car; the train will not be gone a 
very long ways from that station before you will 
see a pretty slick looking young man open the 
car door in front, walk up the car until he comes 
to this young lady and shake hands with her 
and sit down in the seat with her. Now this 
young fellow and girl are without a doubt taking 
a trip off somewhere. She gets into the last car, 
just as far back in it as she could find a seat, 
while he gets in the front end of the train, walks 
through the whole length of it, to see if there is 
anybody on the train that they know, and then 
posts his lady friend in regard to the ones he has 
seen whom he knew. If you were on that 
train, you would notice these two leave it 
together. Why is it they did not get on to the 
train together in the first place? Is it not strange 
they did not meet each other at the depot before 
the train came into the station ? Others get on 
the train at the same station, but never see each 
other until they get off at a certain station 
where they have agreed to. You cannot fool the 
drummers on the cars, for they lead a sort of 
railroad life, and have to be educated up to most 
all of the tricks in it themselves. 

It is not a strange sight to see a gentleman 
waiting at different stations for the train to come 
in, and see a young lady get off the cars to meet 
him. She certainly must be his wife or daugh¬ 
ter, if some of the drummers on the train do not 
33 


know him. If they do, it generally turns out to 
be somebody’s else wife or daughter, who has 
promised to meet this gentleman, and has kept her 
promise, thinking nobody has seen her. But he 
or she are perfectly safe, when it happened to be 
only a drummer who saw them, for they will 
never stir up any scandal about anybody if they 
can possibly help it. If all the drummers on the 
road should tell all they knew to be the truth, 
what a job the lawyers of our glorious country 
would have. They could all be millionaires in a 
short time. What a number of grass widows 
there would be walking around ! What a num¬ 
ber of divorced husbands, who would not care so 
much after all, probably! 

There are some very queer sights to be seen 
in the summer time, when the thermometer is up 
to about ninety. A drummer riding on the cars, 
especially in the evening, may be looking out of 
the window when he passes by the different 
houses. He is apt to catch a glimpse of both 
men and women in the dress that Nature alone 
provided for them. It is quick as a flash—simply 
a passing look at a living picture. No drummer 
tries to catch a second look, because he knows 
the train is going too fast to do so. Tittle do 
the people who are dressed so scantily think that 
they can be seen from the cars so plainly, but 
they can, especially by drummers, who are 
always looking for something new. There are 
certain sections of the country where the drum¬ 
mers travel in the summer time that the women 
sit right out on the steps of their house in the 
daytime, as one drummer expressed it, with 
nothing on but an apron, tied around their 
waists, and that was only put there to keep their 
34 


nose clean; but how true this is it is hard to tell. 

In taking the drummer’s life as a whole, 
how can he help seeing some of the queerest 
sights ever recorded. It would not do to put in 
print all the queer sights witnessed by “Only 
a Drummer.” 


35 


CHAPTER VII. 


a Drummer’s Deviltry. 

W HEN a drummer is playing a good joke, 
it is then he is growing fat from 
laughter. There is one thing certain, 
if there is no fun in it, he is not in the 
game for a minute. 

There was a couple of drummers riding in a 
Pullman sleeper one evening. They sat up 
rather late talking together, while the rest of 
the passengers in the car retired to their bunks, 
one by one, until they had all gone, But the 
two drummers, who, as a rule, are the last 
people on earth to go to bed, for fear there 
might be something doing, as they express it, 
and they might miss it, were in it for fair, as the 
story goes. It was not long before an old lady 
crawled out of her bunk, for some good reason, 
no doubt, and disappeared in one end of the car. 
When she pulled the curtain around her berth, 
she pinned her ticket on the curtain, to be sure 
she would make no mistake when she came 
back. One of the drummers happened to look 
sideways and saw her pin the ticket upon the 
curtain. When she was out of sight, he simply* 
went to the curtain where it was pinned, and 
moved it on to the curtain of the next berth, and 
then he sat down with his friend, as if nothing 
had happened. When the old lady came back, 
she threw back the curtain where the ticket was 
36 



pinned, thinking, of course, it was her berth. 
When she threw back the curtain she screamed 
at the top of her voice, for there lay in the bunk 
a man. Her cries woke him up, and he com¬ 
menced to stir around. He wanted to know 
what she wanted there. She rung for the porter, 
and commenced to tell him her tale of woe, how 
she had pinned her ticket to the curtain of her 
berth, so she would make no mistake, and how 
that man had the impudence to occupy her bed 
when she was away. The porter took her ticket, 
looked it over, told her she must have pinned it 
on the wrong curtain, for that ticket called for 
the berth just beyond that one. Then the porter 
opened the berth that the ticket called for, and 
the old lady recognized at once that the wrinkles 
in the bed clothes were just as she had left 
them when she got out, but she could not see 
how she could have made the mistake and pinned 
the ticket on that man’s curtain. When the 
porter got her all fixed right again, she was 
happy. The two drummers laughed to see the 
fun, and gained about half a pound of flesh 
each, and appeared perfectly innocent of having 
been the instigators of it. 

A drummer comes into a hotel dining room, 
and sees a lady and gent sitting at a table; he 
recognizes them, goes over and shakes hands 
with them, and perhaps gets an invitation to eat 
with them at their table. Just what he is fishing 
for ; he calls for the drinks, of whatever kind he 
can get, which is not always soda water. He 
gets them to drink all he can at the supper table. 
After supper is over he tells the gentleman to 
send the lady up to her room, for he wishes to 
see him alone for a little while. After begging 


37 


the lady’s pardon, she will go to her room to 
wait for him. The drummer will take him 
around the hotel and introduce him to two or 
three other drummers. Then they will repair to 
the bar room, where the first drummer will treat 
all hands. While they are there drinking, he 
will get next to the other drummers, tell them to 
keep treating this fellow as long as he will drink, 
—for perhaps he has brought a special lady 
friend of his to the hotel with him. 

When he makes the other drummers wise, 
they are very quick getting on to his play. 
They will buy drinks as fast as this poor fellow 
can pour them into himself. If he gets a little 
weary of this, then they might propose a friendly 
game of cards. Once in awhile the drummer 
sends a drink of some kind up to the lady’s 
room with his compliments. While they are 
playing cards, they might get so much drink 
into this poor fellow that he cannot see the 
cards. After a short time he might get so he 
can hardly see anything. Then the first drum¬ 
mer tells him he is in no fit condition to be seen 
by his lady friend, or his supposed to be wife. 
He agrees with him, and he then takes him up 
stairs, puts him to bed in a room all by himself. 
It is not long before he is fast asleep, uncon¬ 
scious of all that is going on around him, just 
through the kindness of his friend, the drum¬ 
mer. You can imagine how embarrassing it is 
for this same drummer to go and tell the wife 
what is the matter with her dear husband. 
Thus a drummer disappoints two hearts that 
beat as one. 

If you take a lady friend to a hotel, have 
nothing to do with drummers, for they are liable 

38 


to upset your plans by their kindness. If an old 
drummer meets a new drummer, selling the 
same line of goods he is handling, he will try to 
tell him all about the different dealers in different 
cities he has been. One time a drummer was 
telling one dealing in the same line of goods 
about a merchant in a certain city that before he 
even tried to approach him for an order he must 
be sure to ask him out to have a drink, for if he 
did not he would not be able to do any business 
with him. After he had posted him all he could, 
the young drummer starts out to that city to see 
this man. Then the' old drummer turns to some 
of his old friends and says: ‘ ‘ This man I have 
told him to ask out to take a drink is a deacon of 
one of the largest churches in that city. He 
does not even drink any kind of liquor, or use 
tobacco in any form, and any one who does he 
believes are going right straight to the bad place. 
When the young lad asks him to have a drink, 
he will give him a lecture that he will never 
forget.” Then the drummer laughed on a little 
fat to think what a fool he would make out of 
this new drummer. They will give a new 
drummer all kinds of jollies sometimes. One of 
the most prominent tricks used to be to ask a 
new drummer if he had been around to see the 
trade. If he had, they would get posted from 
him about what the different dealers had said to 
him, and after talking with him for a little while 
the old drummer would leave the hotel, go to 
the nearest friends of his that have a telephone, 
and call up the hotel where the young drummer 
was stopping, and inquire for him. He would 
go to the telephone, and the old drummer would 
tell him he was Mr.-, whom he had called 


39 



upon in the morning, but being so busy he could 
not look his line of samples over, but if he wished 
to bring them to his store now he would devote a 
little time to him. The young drummer is de¬ 
lighted to think that he should be called up by 
telephone by a dealer; he certainly must want 
some goods. Probably the young drummer’s 
samples will weigh anywhere from forty to fifty 
pounds, and he starts out to carry them over to 
this merchant’s store. The old drummer that 
plays the trick is sure to send him to the 
store farthest away from the hotel. You can 
best imagine what must take place between 
the young drummer and the merchant whom 
he tells telephoned for him. When he re¬ 
turns to the hotel, the old drummer is 
sitting in the hotel, weighing a little more, 
and thinking what a laugh he has had on the 
new drummer. You may note by this that the 
majority of drummers to-day can tell when they 
go to the telephone to answer a call from any of 
their customers whether he is one or not, 
because they have studied their customers’ voices 
so closely. One more thing a drummer has to 
be very wise in is the sound of voices. 

Another trick that has often been played is 
this: A drummer would be talking with another 
drummer about different girls they have met 
in the cities where they have stopped. They 
may get to talking about some in the city they 
are in. After the conversation is over, one of 
them perhaps will step out to the house of a lady 
friend, tell her he wants to find out about a 
drummer friend of his and a certain girl he is 
keeping company with in that city. He has her 
go to the telephone to call him up by ’phone at 
40 


the hotel where he stops; then she represents 
herself as being the girl he knows. The drum¬ 
mer tells her what to say to him to make him 
believe it is his girl, and thus an old drummer 
will fool a young drummer and find out all his 
most private affairs. They have certainly heard 
some very funny things over the telephone in 
regard to young ladies in different cities by mis¬ 
representing a little bit to a fellow drummer. It 
is not long before the young drummers are all 
posted on most of the drummers’ tricks. There 
are plenty of tricks that the drummers have 
played which cannot be put into print. 

The majority of stories, jokes and anecdotes 
are said to be originated by the drummers, and 
the majority of the comical stories are. If you 
want to hear some real good stories, don’t forget 
to ask a drummer to tell them to you, because it 
goes with their line of business, especially when 
they meet anybody who has got the blues. Then 
they try to cure them right away. Never play 
any tricks on the drummers, if you can possibly 
help it, for if you do they will certainly get back 
at you with a little bit in the lead. 


4 1 


CHAPTER VIII. 

R Drummer’s Goodness: 

F OR all the hard names some people might 
attach to a drummer, there are times in his 
life that he does some good, kind acts. 
Travelling from place to place as he 
does, he cannot help .seeing all kind of misery 
depicted in the life of both sexes. A drummer 
has been known to go miles out of his way to do 
a little act of charity. No one stands more 
ready to help the needy than the drummer. 

There is hardly a meeting of the Y. M. C. 
A. held in the large cities but that some drum¬ 
mer will be in attendance, and very likely speak 
at the Sunday afternoon meeting for young men, 
and when they take up the contribution it is then 
that his goodness is shown. There is no doubt 
but that the Salvation Army is helped a good 
deal by the drummers, who are in the different 
cities every evening. When the Army holds its 
meetings on the street, especially on summer 
evenings, there are but very few drummers pass 
them by without donating a little to their good 
work, because they know and have seen plenty 
of people converted by the Salvation Army while 
holding their meetings on the street. There 
is no doubt but that a good many drummers 
know of quite a few of the poor, fallen women 
and men who have repented for their past sins 
through this great Army. Upon being told of 
42 


this, they feel it a part of tlieir duty to contribute 
to them, to help all they can to lift up the fallen 
ones. Above all things that a drummer admires 
is a good, true, Christian woman. There are 
many times on a railroad train when a drummer 
shows his goodness. For instance, a poor man 
gets on to the train under the influence of liquor, 
the conductor comes through the cars for the 
tickets, and this poor fellow has no ticket, or 
any money, to give him. What would the con¬ 
ductor do? He might stop the train and put 
him off before he got to the next station, never 
even giving a thought of sympathy to the man. 
He simply might think or say he is a bum, 
trying to beat a ride. Who is it takes his part ? 
Why, only a drummer. They have been known, 
so it is said, to have saved many a man under 
the influence of liquor from being put off a 
train, because he had no money to pay his fare 
with. 

Some will wonder why a drummer will do 
this. The reason is because there is not hardly 
one of them who has been on the road any 
length of time but that has had to wait some 
times for two or three days at a hotel to get a 
little remittance from their house, and a good 
deal of their sympathy comes from this cause, 
for they know a man cannot travel without 
money. If they have any, and can do their 
fellow men any good with it, they are the ones 
who will surely do it. 

It was said two drummers were travelling in 
a smoking car together one day on a certain road, 
and stopping at a station they noticed a poor 
old fellow get into the car very much under the 
influence of liquor. One of them remarked, “By 
43 


Jove, that fellow has got a jag on for fair.” 
When the conductor came through for the 
tickets, it was the same old story—no money, no 
ticket. The conductor pulled the rope to put 
him off, when up jumped the drummer and asked 
him what he was going to do. He told him he 
would have to put this man off for he had no 
ticket or money to pay his fare. The drummer 
told him to pull the rope and go ahead, and he 
would be responsible for him. The conductor 
did as he was told, and the train started cn 
again. The drummer happened to spy a Grand 
Army badge on the vest of the old man, and he 
beckoned to the conductor and said: “Did you 
see that badge on this man? If you did, 'that 
alone should have passed him on the best rail¬ 
roads in our entire country. I will pay his fare 
willingly. I have been paid over and over 
again without a doubt for what such men as he 
who wears that badge has done for me.” The 
drummer found out where the poor old fellow 
was going, and handed his fare to the conductor. 
Then he said, ‘‘You are welcome to it; it does 
my heart good to help men of this kind, no mat¬ 
ter in what condition I find them.” No one else 
offered to pay his fare, except the other drum¬ 
mer, who wanted to pay half with his friend, but 
he would not let him. When they arrived at the 
old man’s stopping place, “only a drummer” 
helped him off the cars; nobody else would. 

A drummer will sometimes give a poor little 
paper boy five or teii cents for a paper, and never 
wait for the change, because they know it will 
do the little lad good. Who else is it who does 
that ? They very seldom pass a beggar of any 
kind on the street without giving them some- 
44 


thing, if they think they are in need of it. Who 
is it that tips the waiters, and waitresses, and 
bell boys in the hotel most? Why, it is the 
drummer. He is always one of the first to help 
a friend, or a foe, out of trouble, no matter of 
what nature it may be. They are always ready 
to go into a fight to help a friend out. Many a 
fellow has made a mistake by letting out slur¬ 
ring remarks at a woman passing by with a 
drummer, for he has always gone right up to 
them, and made them apologize for what they 
said, or would thump satisfaction out of them. 
Whoever insults a woman by making remarks 
when she is walking with a drummer is sure to 
pay for it. Don’t think because a drummer 
happens to be dressed well sometimes that he is 
a dude, for he is far from it. There are some 
very strong athletes travelling on the road, fol¬ 
lowing a drummer’s profession. The majority 
of drummers can take care of themselves pretty 
well. 

Don’t carry the idea that a drummer’s mind 
all runs to badness, because it don’t. He is ever 
looking to do a good, kind deed, if he can, no 
matter for whom it may be. No better heart can 
be found in any human being than the one in 
“Only a Drummer.’’ 


45 


CHAPTER IX. 

Is a Drummer Really to Blame? 

S OME say a drummer has the name of chas¬ 
ing all the women he sees, but those who 
say this certainly have never travelled very 
much. If they had they would reverse 
this remark, and say that every drummer a 
woman sees she will chase. There is a saying, 

‘ ‘ Everything comes to him who waits. ’ ’ So far 
as women are concerned, a drummer has not to 
wait long, for they are everywhere conspicuous 
—in the railroad stations and cars, (even though 
they do carry an empty dress suit case, for the 
looks of it,) on the trollej^ cars, at the hotels— 
everywhere you can mention, just waiting for a 
drummer. Why? Not on account of their 
good looks. No; because they think if they 
could only get in with a drummer he would give 
them a grand good time. But, don’t forget 
these women that chase after the drummers are 
the ones that they certainly steer clear of, 
because, as a rule, a drummer is possessed with 
a little education. There are some people who 
say the drummers are after every actress they 
see. This is said by people who do not travel, 
for if they did they would very readily see that 
the drummers, actors and actresses cannot help 
from being in each other’s company a great deal, 
on the cars and in the hotels, travelling from 
city to city. Some of the best friends a drum- 
46 


mer has are actors and actresses. If some of 
the women would conduct themselves as the ac¬ 
tresses do while on the road they would be a 
great deal better behaved than they are now, for 
the actresses know enough to mind their own 
business while en route, which some women 
whom the drummers have seen have certainly 
got to learn. If some of the people who think 
the drummers are after every actress they see 
could only get on to the road, and have a little 
experience of their own with this class of people, 
they would find that there were perfect ladies 
among the actresses, as well as any other fem¬ 
inine profession. It is one of the pastimes of a 
drummer to go to a theatre in the evening and 
see a good play, especially if he is acquainted 
with some of the people who take part in it. 
They say on the road the actors and actresses 
can laugh all day to see the drummers work, but 
when it comes evening the drummers can laugh 
to see the actors and actresses play their parts at 
the theatre. 

There are all kinds of inducements held out 
to the drummers to lead a different kind of a life 
from what they should lead. There are spotters 
in a great many places who will try to induce 
him to go out to see the beautiful sights of a 
city, where all the gilded palaces are fixed up in 
the nicest finery for the reception of any one 
whom these spotters might bring in to see them. 
It has been said that there are a certain class of 
girls in different places where drummers sell 
their line of goods, who post them pretty well 
sometimes, which even surprises some of the 
oldest drummers at times. A young man, or an 
,old man for that matter, who can travel and 
47 


take good care of himself, without getting led 
astray, has got to have one of the strongest will 
powers that a man can have. There are such 
strange things thrown out to wreck the life of a 
drummer that people have the least idea or 
knowledge of, except those who live the drum¬ 
mer’s life, and even they have to keep a pretty 
sharp eye out all of the time; if they did not, 
they would get into some of the snares. There 
is a saying, “The first road to hell is society.” 
But the drummers will tell you, if yon want to 
send a boy to hell fast, put him on the road as a 
drummer, and if he doesn’t get there that way he 
never will get there at all, which is without 
doubt the truth, for there are pathways that had 
to it in every direction he may go, and the only 
thing that will save him is his own will power, 
because every one else will seem to be against 
him. Many a nice young man has been ruined 
by being a drummer. You might hear people 
say it was his own fault, but if they could follow 
the road for one year only, and see all of the 
temptations thrown out to drummers they would 
very soon see that it takes a very self-willed, 
strong-minded person to be a drummer. It is 
far better for a drummer to be a married man 
than to lead a single life, for it helps to influence 
him in the right direction. While there are sin¬ 
gle drummers who are just as good, and far 
better, than some of the married drummers, yet 
they are few and far between. It makes no 
difference to the caterers for the drummers 
whether they are married or single; they have 
no respect for that. It is how much money can 
we get out of them. 

The drummers with weak minds cannot 

48 


help getting on the downward road, and when 
they once get to going it is hard to stop them 
until it is too late, and they are not to blame, for 
they cannot help it. Influence over mind is 
what did it; by not having a will power of their 
own. It is the only thing a drummer needs, and 
most of them have got it. It is a great credit to 
a drummer who can travel on the road year in 
and year out and not go astray, for there is no 
position you can place a man in where he will 
have the chances of living a faster life than by 
being “Only a Drummer.” 


49 


CHAPTER X. 


R Workingman and a Drummer. 

O NE of the best friends a workingman has 
is the drummer. Do not think because 
a drummer goes around dressed up he 
does not work. A drummer is simply a 
workingman dressed up. He has to be dressed 
a little better than his brother workingman at 
home in the factory, because he has to associate 
with the head managers of all concerns, while 
his brother workingman is at home in the factory, 
getting out the goods that he has managed to 
sell. When there is a strike of any kind, one of 
the first persons to sympathize with the work¬ 
ingman’s side is the drummer, if he thinks they 
are right. It is known where there have been 
street car strikes that the drummer would carry 
heavy grips around the city all day, rather than 
to ride in the street cars, out of sympathy for the 
men who were out on a strike, when they think 
they have a just cause to strike. Who is it that 
supports the electric street cars, or any other 
kind of running cars, for that matter? It is the 
drummers and their work that support the entire 
lot of them throughout the United States. Some 
persons will wonder how they do this. It is this 
way: The drummers get the business on the 
road for the men to work on, who get the pay 
for their work, and give the money to their 
wives, daughters and sons to spend, who com- 
50 


pose all of the people who ride on the trolley 
cars, outside of the drummers themselves. 

Don’t forget for a minute that the drummers 
are the ones that furnish the entire business of 
our country, and that every workingman is de¬ 
pendent upon a drummer’s sales for work. It is 
the drummer who has made the workingmen so 
strongly united in our country by forming the 
different trade and labor unions. You may ask : 
How did the drummers do it? Simply by trav¬ 
elling around the different parts of the United 
States getting orders for work, and by so doing 
creating a demand for labor in all kinds of trades. 
Who formed the trusts? There is nobody to 
blame for it any more than the drummer in one 
sense of the word; at the same time, there 
are but very few of the drummers who are in 
favor of them. Yet, the drummers helped to 
build them up, simply by creating a very large 
demand for all kinds of goods represented by 
them. 

There is not hardly a workingman in the 
United States, who goes to work in a factory, or 
any other place, but who will say the line of 
work he is doing is sold by a drummer. There 
may be a few things that are not sold by the 
drummers, but they are very few. When you 
hear or read of the great prosperity of our glori¬ 
ous country, you will see all kinds of things 
spoken of as being the cause of it, but you will 
never see a word said about the drummer being 
the cause of so much prosperity. It is his own 
fault to a great extent, for there is not one of 
them tra velling who is not striving his utmost to 
bring all the trade he can into the house he rep¬ 
resents. It is the continual hard struggle of the 
5i 


drummer for business that helps make the 
United States so prosperous. We know that the 
entire wealth of our country is made up mostly 
from the interests in manufacturing, and it is 
the drummers who are striving to keep the man¬ 
ufacturers wealthy all the time. 

By doing this they bring in all the work the 
house they represent can do with their working¬ 
men, who in their turn get extra pay for over¬ 
time, and sometimes get their pay raised, accord¬ 
ing to the work they are capable of doing, which 
if it were not for the drummers they would not 
have to do at all. You will hear or read in the 
papers every once in awhile of some senator or 
congressman making a speech at Washington, 
saying the United States ought to have more 
markets to place the output of our goods. They 
will say it is on account of the large production 
of goods the manufacturers are turning out, but 
you will never hear one of them say a word about 
the drummers selling such a vast quantity of 
goods, or we should have more markets to let 
him spread himself in. Without a doubt, it is 
the drummer who has built this glorious country 
up to where it is in all kinds of business, and 
not the congressman or the senator, who gets up 
with a great long speech to tell how it is being 
done. The drummer does more in one hour’s 
work to do this than a senator or a congressman 
does in a five hours’ speech. Yet the senator 
and congressman may get a whole lot of praise 
for showing the amount of brains he has for figur¬ 
ing out the progress of our country, but when he 
omits to mention the great work the drummer is 
doing for the progress of our country, it then 
shows he is short sighted. 

52 


It is to be hoped that in the near future, 
when any of our prominent men at Washington 
make a great speech on the progress of the 
United States, he will not fail to at least recog¬ 
nize the drummer as doing a little towards its 
growth. Whoever the senator or congressman 
may be that does this will always be thought 
well of by all the drummers of our entire coun¬ 
try. You can judge by the present business that 
is being carried on that there are certainly one or 
two drummers travelling around. 

It has been said that if you subtract all of 
the drummers from the last census that has been 
taken, you would find without them but 
very little manufacturing going on. They are 
certainly the ones who are supporting the entire 
80,000,000 people of the United States, by fur¬ 
nishing the heads of each family, as well as a 
good many of the children in different families, 
with plenty of work that they solicit orders for. 
Then let every workingman always speak a 
good word for the drummer, for he is simply a 
workingman dressed up. He travels to get the 
orders for goods, while you have to work on 
them and ship them out. This being the case, 
the workingman and the drummer should always 
be the best of friends, for they are ever hand in 
hand with their work. 

There is no doubt but that one of the best 
friends a workingman has is ‘ ‘ Only a Drummer. 


53 


CHAPTER XI. 


R Drummer’s Best Friend When 
Travelling. 


DRUMMER’S life is to associate mostly 



with entire strangers. No matter where 


* he goes, he will make friends. Some of 
the drummers are such jolly good fel¬ 
lows, well met, that this remark has been made 
in regard to them: “You could put him out in 
the wilds of Africa, and inside of a week the most 
ferocious and wildest of animals would be his 
friends; not one of them would even harm him. * ’ 
For all a drummer is, generally speaking, 
such a good fellow, there are many he meets 
during his travels who are always trying to soak 
him, as the expression is. When they find out 
he is a drummer, then their first thought is to 
get all they can out of him. One reason, no 
doubt, is because they pay as they go. Ask any 
drummer you are acquainted with; he can tell 
you who it is that will take the most advantage 
of him when they get the chance. There is no 
doubt at all but that all the hotel proprietors 
know that the best advertisers they have for 
their line of business to-day is a good, live 
drummer. When he is treated right at the 
hotels he stops at, he does not hesitate to send 
all of his friends to them that he can get to go 
there, who, with the drummers, they have 
quite a good many, especially among their 


54 


profession. One drummer will always ask an¬ 
other one what is the best hotel to stop at in a 
strange city they might be going to, and with all 
the persuasion another person might use to have 
them try a different hotel, they will not do it. 
They will go to the one their brother drummer 
told them to go to. Many a good hotel has 
stopped doing business on account of losing the 
drummers’ trade, which in the majority of the 
large cities to-day are kept running by “Only a 
Drummer’s” patronage. 

Another thing you can think of. When you 
see a freight train going, with loaded freight cars 
attached to it, if you could take every car off that 
train that was loaded with goods that were sold 
by a drummer, you would find there would not 
be many cars left. If it were not for the drum¬ 
mers, the large railroad companies would not 
have to run so many freight trains over their 
different roads as they do now. The drummers 
are always creating a large demand for all kinds 
of goods, hence the railroad companies must fur¬ 
nish sufficient cars to send these goods to market. 
But for all the trade a drummer will bring info a 
railroad company, they will make him pay his 
fare on a passenger train just the same as a 
person who does not ride on the cars once in five 
years. They probably do not give it even a 
thought that it is ‘‘Only a Drummer” who 
creates such a demand for freight cars and 
trains. Such is the case, and some drummers 
sell goods enough in one year, that are shipped 
over one railroad for that company to furnish 
him with a free pass for his entire lifetime, for 
the freight receipts must certainly figure up very 
large profits on this drummer’s sales. 

55 


It would be a good idea for some of the large 
manufacturers to make a proposition to the rail¬ 
road companies, that if they ship a certain amount 
of freight over their road that railroad would 
give their drummers a free pass for a year. The 
different railroad companies are making a good 
profit off of the drummers for selling goods that 
are shipped by freight over any road, same as 
the manufacturers. By the railroad standing a 
little bit, or all, of the expenses of the drummer’s 
travelling, it would certainly give the drummers 
a better chance to travel further and sell more 
goods, which would mean more profits to the 
railroad companies carrying them to market. It 
does not seem, to look at it this way, that a 
drummer should be made to pay full fare on a 
railroad. There ought to be a drummer’s ticket 
issued by every railroad company in the United 
States, giving them a very low rate for travel¬ 
ling, because the drummer is not using the pas¬ 
senger cars for pleasure. They are simply 
going to look for business for the firm they rep¬ 
resent, and if they get any orders at all it means 
business for the railroad companies, because the 
goods have got to be shipped over their road. 
Here is another chance for a United States sena¬ 
tor or congressman to introduce a bill at Wash¬ 
ington asking that the railroad companies of the 
United States issue a drummer’s ticket for their 
personal use at a reduction from the regular fare, 
or even a free pass, if the firm the drummer rep¬ 
resents ship a certain amount of goods in a year 
over certain roads, or on account of the enormous 
business a drummer brings into the railroads. 
All the drummers who have ever travelled know 
for a fact that the best friend they have while 
56 


travelling is the money they have in their pocket, 
because this will get them most anywhere they 
want. We are all aware there are a great many 
things that even money cannot buy, but there 
are a very few things that a drummer wants but 
what his money will buy for him. 

Then the best friend a drummer has is his 
money, and there is hardly any person who has 
to keep taking out their money, and paying for 
something all the time, more than a drummer 
does. He starts out in the morning to pay, and 
he ends up at night paying. A drummer is a 
very great help to the house he represents, by 
watching all of the different improvements that 
are taking place in the line of goods he is selling, 
because he can see by making a few suggestions 
how he can improve his line of goods over 
others. By doing this, he puts his house in the 
lead of all others, which gives him a better 
chance for selling his goods to the trade, and 
holding some of his best friends, the buyers of 
the different houses, who are always pleased 
with something new, even .in an old line oi 
goods. 


57 


CHAPTER XII. 

0nly a Drummer. 

W HEN a person makes the remark that 
he is “Only a Drummer,” they are 
certainly speaking of one of the great¬ 
est human beings that we have on the 
face of our glorious earth to-day. . What could 
be done without him? In a business way of 
looking at this question, there could be but very 
little done. If you would stop to consider for a 
little while the importance of drummers as a 
class, you would certainly come to the conclu¬ 
sion that they control the’ United States in a 
business way. 

There are a large number of people who 
might read this assertion, and laugh to think of 
drummers controlling the industries of the 
United States, for the simple reason that they 
have not brains enough to think and reason why 
it is so. It is advisable that none of the drum¬ 
mers should get a swelled head, as the saying is, 
or compel their houses to raise their pay, simply 
because they control the United States manufac¬ 
turing industries. Here are a few illustrations 
how you might do it: We will say, for instance, 
that all the drummers of the United States had 
fQrmed an organization, perhaps they might call 
it “The Travelling Salesman’s Union of the 
United States.” We will say that each man 
was bound hand in hand with the other in this 
union; then, suppose some grievance should 
53 


arise and the president should stop all these men 
from travelling throughout the United States, 
and they were compelled to remain at home until 
whatever the trouble might be was settled. Can 
you think what a great loss this would be to 
hotel keepers, expressmen, railroads, and to the 
manufacturers in general? 

We will suppose there was a question of 
wages between the manufacturers and drum¬ 
mers. Suppose each drummer should write to 
his own particular customers of his line of goods, 
to request them not to order anything from his 
house until this matter was settled. If the deal¬ 
ers should hold their orders, and not send any in, 
it would cripple the entire industries of the 
United States. How long would it be before the 
manufacturers would have to let their help lay 
off until they had orders to work on? How long 
would it be before the railroads would stop run¬ 
ning their heavy freight trains, and lay off quite a 
number of men? How many hotels would have 
to close for want of trade? How many stores of 
all kinds would have to close their doors for 
want of trade, which they could not get on ac¬ 
count of the men all being out of work, waiting 
for a settlement of the drummers’ strike? Then, 
when this strike was settled, how long would it 
take the manufacturers to get back the trade 
that they had lost, if thev ever got it all back ? 
This is simply a supposition of what drummers 
could do, if they were disposed to, as well as any 
other labor organization. Therefore, you can see 
what a very strong power ‘ 4 Only a Drummer ’ ’ 
is, if he would only think so. It is to be hoped 
that there will never be any differences of this 
kind between the drummers and the manufac- 


59 


turers, for it certainly would be a very disastrous 
affair to our entire country. Yet, it gives one a 
chance to see what a power the drummer holds 
on this little earth, if a person would only stop 
to think it all over. As a rule, the majority of 
the drummers travelling to-day are fairly well 
educated. They have to be to do business, for 
they meet the very best educated business men 
of the United States. They have to know how 
.to talk with this class of people to keep their 
trade for the house they represent. How easy it 
might seem to fill all of the drummers’ places 
with new men. Yes, this could be done no 
doubt very readily, but what an unhappy life the 
new man would lead if all of the old drummer’s 
customers turned him down without even giving 
him an order, and he would be laughed and 
jeered at by every one, to think that he took a 
striking drummer’s place. He would get so 
thoroughly disgusted the first trip he went he 
would never go the second time. You can see 
very readily, by just giving this a little study, 
what a drummer might do, if he wished to. 

When you meet one, do not make any more 
of the slurring remarks about him; look upon 
him as being the life of all the manufacturing 
industries, for this is what he is, and he it is who 
is furnishing the work for most of the people 
who ridicule him day in and day out, which is a 
lot of foolishness, for you can very readily see, if 
you stop the drummers from travelling, you 
would cripple the entire industries of the 
United States. If there is anybody who wishes 
to say, “Oh, he is ‘Only a Drummer.’ You 
can’t trust them very far, you know,’’ let them 
Study up the entire responsibility that rests on a 
6q 


drummer; then sit down and think for a little 
while, and the majority of the inhabitants of the 
United States will find that their bread and butter, 
and also their means of living, is furnished by 
this self-same person, “Only a Drummer.” 

Therefore, a drummer is entitled to a little 
respect from everybody who knows him, for he 
is a jolly good fellow, wherever you may meet 
him. 

For a drummer has no fear, 

When he travels everywhere all alone. 

He is simply travelling around year by year, 
Waiting to be called to his eternal home. 

Some day his last order he will take, 

Then depart from this glorious land. 

He hopes his friends will make no mistake, 
Because he wants tomeetthem allin Holy Land. 


The End. 


6i 














































































MAR 16 1903 









































































